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INS IDE
NE SS, FU N
TIP S FO R FIT
sits on a
in a life jacket
A dachshund
enbury
owner at Coff
kayak with his
State Park.
Lake at Fort Stevens
Hailey Hoff man/The
Astorian
149TH YEAR, NO. 112
WEEKEND EDITION // SATURDAY, MARCH 19, 2022
$1.50
Ukrainian family fi nds
refuge with friends
on the North Coast
Shekhovtsova and her
two boys fl ed the war
By ETHAN MYERS
The Astorian
K
atya Shekhovtsova left almost everything behind.
All she brought on her fi ve-day journey from
Ukraine to the North Coast was her two sons —
Luka, 7, and Matthew, 5 — and a suitcase.
H er husband, Andriy, stayed behind after Ukraine
required men aged 18 to 60 to remain after Russia
invaded .
“It was a hard decision, of course,” Shekhovtsova
said of leaving her husband, her house, her friends and
her family to come to the United States. “But my hus-
band said this will be safer for us and he will feel more
(secure) knowing that we are in a good place.”
Shekhovtsova does not know how long she and her
boys will stay , but the Millers — the Knappa family
that helped bring them to Oregon — are doing every-
thing they can to make them feel at home.
Heather and Tim Miller, who work as substitute
teachers in the Knappa School District, knew Shek-
hovtsova and her husband from when they lived in
Ukraine for over a decade.
The couple relocated to Eastern Europe in 1997 to
work with churches and young people on leadership
development. Shekhovtsova, a member of the same
church, became the piano teacher to several of the
Millers’ children and the families soon became close
friends.
As the potential for a Russian invasion built in
Ukraine, the Millers kept in communication with Andriy
Shekhovtsov, assuring him they had a place for the four
of them to stay if war broke out.
See Refugees, Page A6
‘IT WAS A HARD DECISION, OF
COURSE. BUT MY HUSBAND
SAID THIS WILL BE SAFER FOR
US AND HE WILL FEEL MORE
(SECURE) KNOWING THAT WE
ARE IN A GOOD PLACE.’
Photos by Lydia Ely/The Astorian
CLOCKWISE FROM TOP: Katya Shekhovtsova holds her son Luka, 7, as he looks at her phone. Oxana Miller holds a phone as
Andriy Shekhovtsov appears in a video chat from Ukraine. Heather Miller translates a phrase to English for Katya Shekhovtsova.
Katya Shekhovtsova | Ukrainian who had to fl ee her country
with her two sons, leaving her husband behind because Ukraine
required men aged 18 to 60 to remain after Russia invaded .
Researchers track health of gray whales City weighs
response to
behavioral
problems
Whales are migrating
north along the coast
By KATIE FRANKOWICZ
KMUN
Giants are passing by the
Oregon Coast right now: Gray
whales migrating north, head-
ing to the Bering Sea from calv-
ing grounds in Baja California,
Mexico.
After several years of see-
ing “skinny” gray whales —
whales apparently not fi nding
enough food en route — and
varied improvement amid shift-
ing ocean conditions, research-
ers have been concerned about
issues in the massive animals’
food chain.
Leigh Torres, an associate pro-
fessor with Oregon State Univer-
sity and part of the Oregon Sea
Grant e xtension, leads a team in
fi eld work along the c oast each
summer to collect important data
on gray whales.
Last year, whales were few
and far between, she said. Torres
is hoping to see more and health-
ier whales this year. Some of the
underfed whales they spotted in
years past have not recovered
to where researchers think they
Tougher restrictions on
RVs and repeat off enders
By NICOLE BALES
The Astorian
National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration
A gray whale breaching in the Pacifi c Ocean.
should be.
“So we’re hoping that they
show up in relatively good
body condition and gain weight
throughout the summer,” she
said.
Gray w hales are the most com-
monly sighted whale species on
the West Coast and were the fi rst
marine mammals to be recov-
ered through the f ederal Endan-
gered Species Act, according to
the state. Though they are no lon-
ger listed as endangered, they still
face a number of threats, includ-
ing boat collisions, entanglement
with fi shing gear and other distur-
bances, such as climate change.
The information Torres and
her team collects informs not
only ongoing research into gray
whales, but also discussions
about the overlap between hump-
back and blue whales and fi shing
activities.
Oregon celebrates two diff er-
ent gray whale watching weeks
each year: one in the spring and
one in the winter. In pre-pan-
demic times, these weeks brought
trained volunteers to coastal
lookouts to help visitors spot and
identify gray whales.
This year, Oregon State Parks
will bring back a popular whale
watching livestream, available
on the Oregon State Parks You-
Tube channel beginning on Mon-
day from 10 a.m to 2 p.m. daily
through March 25. The Whale
See Gray whales, Page A6
Astoria is moving forward on sev-
eral options to address bad behavior
and quality of life concerns that stem
from an increasingly visible homeless
population.
The City Council in February pri-
oritized tools to curb bad behavior. In
the coming weeks, city councilors will
consider adopting ordinances to handle
RVs and stolen and abandoned shopping
carts.
The council also plans to update the
city’s camping ordinance and adopt an
expulsion zone ordinance, which would
temporarily expel repeat off enders from
specifi c places .
See Behavior, Page A5
MORE INSIDE
Bomb hoax leads to evacuation
of Home Depot in Warrenton • A6